Organizational Concern, Prosocial Values, or Impression Management? How Supervisors Attribute Motives to Organizational Citizenship Behavior

Although prior studies have indicated that organizational citizenship behaviors (OCBs) tend to be positively related to supervisory ratings of employee performance, only a few studies have investigated how the motives attributed to OCB (e.g., impression management, prosocial motives, organizational concern) might influence such evaluations. Based on Weiner's (1995) attribution model and a study of supervisors in varied industries, we found that attributions regarding employees' motives for engaging in OCB are related to supervisors' emotional reactions to such behavior, which are, in turn, related to ratings of employee performance. Implications of the study for management research and practice are discussed.